The Secret Life of the American Teenager
The Secret Life of the American Teenager (often shortened to The Secret Life) is an American teen drama television series created by Brenda Hampton. It first aired on ABC Family on 1st July 2008 and ran until 3rd June 2013. The pilot episode broke the record for the highest rated debut on ABC Family, which has been broken by the second season premiere, with 2.82 million viewers Characters 'Main:' *Amy Juergens *Ricky Underwood *Ben Boykewich *Adrian Lee *Grace Bowman *Jack Pappas *Ashley Juergens *George Juergens *Anne Juergens *Leo Boykewich 'Recurring:' Seasons 'Season One' *'Season One' primarily focuses on Amy Juergens becoming pregnant after having sex with Ricky Underwood at band camp. She confides in her best friends Lauren and Madison who try to convince her to go out with Ben Boykewich, a classmate who has fallen in love with her, and then claim the baby is his as his family is rich. Amy refuses to go along with the lie and tells Ben the truth, but he is surprisingly supportive and offers to marry her anyway, despite the protests of his friends Henry and Alice. When Ricky finds out he is the father, he is willing to be a part of his future child's life, causing Adrian Lee, Ricky's friend with benefits to become jealous, especially since Ricky already has his sights on the sweet and virginal Grace Bowman, who was going out with Jack Pappas until he cheated on her with Adrian. Still, much to Adrian's surprise, Grace is not angry with her and the two girls slowly become friends despite being romantic rivals. Ricky and Ben also compete with each other for Amy's attention and at the end of the season, Amy has her child, a boy whom she names John and then decides to keep, after struggling with the decision over the course of the season. 'Season Two' *'In Season Two', Amy's parents Anne and George have separated and Anne even begins dating again, but when she becomes pregnant again, it is revealed that the baby is George's. At the same time, Ashley begins her freshman year at Grant High and resents the legacy Amy has accidentally created as a teenage mother so she befriends a gay classmate named Griffin and they both pledge to remain abstinent throughout high school. Meanwhile, Amy struggles to raise John and frequently argues with Ricky over custodial arrangements, especially since Ben is becoming jealous of Ricky's constant presence. Eventually, Ben and Amy break up while Ricky and Adrian have agreed to date officially but Ricky has issues being faithful. Grace loses her virginity to Jack on the same night her father dies in a plane crash and is irrationally wracked with guilt, and breaks up with him for good. She and her brother Tom have trouble adjusting when their mother decides to remarry again. Adrian begins to reach out to Amy in order to make peace so Amy, John, and Ricky can be a family with less drama. The season's events culminate with Adrian cheating on Ricky with Ben on the night of the Mother/Daughter dance, in an attempt to get back at Ricky for kissing Amy. Ricky is angry at the both of them and breaks up with Adrian and refuses to forgive Ben, thus crushing their already fragile friendship. 'Season Three' *'In Season Three', everyone finds out Adrian is pregnant with Ben's baby. Ricky and Amy continue to date and start considering taking their relationship to the next level. George and Anne Juergens have officially divorced and Anne lives closer to her mother while George stays at the house with Amy and Ashley. Ashley drops out of school and begins homeschooling herself. Kathleen Bowman's husband goes to Zimbabwe for a medical mission to bring aid to third world people and returns in the season finale with a proposal that he and Kathleen return to live and explore the world. Kathleen is hesitant to accept, not wanting to leave Grace and Tom behind by themselves. Adrian and Ben decide to get married and the ceremony occurs near the end of the season. In the two-part season finale, Ben and Adrian are living together in their condo and Adrian begins to sense that something might be wrong with their baby. They decide to call the doctor, who has them meet her at the hospital as soon as possible. The baby is revealed to be stillborn. Amy is upset by this and decides to have sex with Ricky instead of going away for the weekend. 'Season Four' *'In Season Four', Amy and Ricky begin to get closer while Amy and John begin to move in with Ricky in his apartment, which is above the butcher shop. Meanwhile, Ashley leaves to go on a road trip with her boyfriend Toby. Grace goes to Zimbabwe and meets a new guy named Daniel who later becomes her boyfriend. Jack and Madison break up forcing Jack to do all the senior stuff with Grace who he is still in love with. Adrian is depressed as she lost her baby and Ben wants to leave, but doesn't have the heart to do so. Adrian figures out that he wants to leave, and tries to seduce him so she can get pregnant again. Later Adrian sets her goal towards Ricky. Ricky proposes to Amy and she accepts. Afterwards, Jesse has a graduation party and everyone is invited. Adrian goes with Omar, her new boyfriend. Daniel's ex-girlfriend shows up at the party and says she wants him back. Ricky kisses Adrian one last time as per her wish and she claims she is "free" from him, after which her new boyfriend Omar breaks up with her claiming that the kiss was "totally disrespectful". The next morning outside, Grace asks Jack about Adrian's theory that a kiss might help a couple get over each other which prompts Jack to kiss her. It ends with Ricky and Amy making out in front of his car with Lauren dolefully sitting in the back seat. 'Season Five' *This is the fifth and final season of The Secret Life of the American Teenager. The previous season ended with Jack in critical condition at the hospital after being beat up for saving Chloe, a human trafficking victim. Jack recovers on Christmas Eve but deals with post-traumatic stress disorder. Amy and Ricky fake a marriage. Ben confesses his love for Amy and struggles getting over her. Grace and Jack deal with the fact that Jack slept with a long time friend of Ricky, Clementine, and then Grace finds out. They get back together though and get engaged despite Grace secretly not wanting to. Leo and Camille take in and foster Chloe, who has a secret plan to catch the pimp who beat up Jack. Adrian and Omar get engaged, but Adrian desires to finally be her own person. George and Kathleen deal with their issues and aspire to marry. Robbie is revealed to not be the biological son of George. Amy and Ricky's false marriage is exposed. Ethan and Kathy deal with relationship troubles when Kathy's ex-boyfriend comes back into the picture. Ethan risks failing after struggling with Algebra. Amy deals with Ben's feeling for her, and Amy tries to go to school in New York and finds out that Ben is also going. Jack contemplates suing his college for his incident, inspired by money. Henry enlists in the military. The pimp who beat up Jack is caught. The series ends with Amy questioning her relationship with Ben. Grace, Amy, Ben, Henry, Alice, Lauren and Madison graduate high school. Grace and Jack break up, Adrian reconciles with Omar. After multiple times telling Ricky that she was going to get Married, even though he gave her several opportunities to get out of it earlier, the night before they are to get Married she breaks up with him. Amy then decides that basically being a Mom isn't for her and after being with her Son for 3 years for night and day she is going to move 3,000 miles away to go to college leaving her Son across country when he has no say in the matter. The last scene of the show is the newly single and obviously depressed Ricky sitting on a couch with John reading a book and saying "she lived happily ever after and so will we". The viewer is to assume at this point that while they are sitting at home lonely and depressed Amy is either lying on her back somewhere or partying it up preparing to do so. Other Media On June 15, 2010, The Secret Diary of Ashley Juergens was published. It was written by Kelly and Courtney Turk, whose previous credits include episodes of 7th Heaven and NCIS, it documents the thoughts of the character Ashley Juergens in the events chronicling the first and part of the second season.It also includes new characters that were not shown on The Secret Life."We watched the episodes together and then talked briefly about ideas we each had and what we thought Ashley would have to say about whatever the storyline was. Then we separated and exchanged our chapters," Courtney stated while talking about the difference between writing a book and writing for television. 'Music:' The series theme, sung by Molly Ringwald, is an upbeat version of Cole Porter's "Let's Do It (Let's Fall in Love)." Other noteworthy music featured in the installments includes: *Both the first and last episodes of the first season feature the song "Girlfriend" by Avril Lavigne. It was also featured in the second season episode 22. A piano version of the song was played during mid-4th season finale. *In the fifteenth episode of the second season, Jack plays "She Don't Wanna Man" by Asher Roth while he and Madison dance. *At the Mother-Daughter Dance (Season 2, Episode 19), Love Story by Taylor Swift is played in the background while Amy, her mother, and Ashley sit on the bleachers. *In the fourth episode of the third season, when Adrian sits sadly on the stairs in front of her house, Tom plays "You Are So Beautiful" performed by Joe Cocker on his cell phone before they dance. (Season 3, episode 4). *The song "Kids" by MGMT appears in the fifth episode of the third season when a slide show of Amy lost in New York is played. *At a party in the Bowmans' guesthouse, the song "New Day" performed by Tamar Kaprelian is played. *Bruno Mars' "Just the Way You Are" plays in the final moments of the first half of the third season finale, including during Ben and Adrian's wedding. *Sarah McLachlan's "Angel" plays after Ben and Adrian find out the baby is dead, and the montage is played to close the season. *"Daughters" by John Mayer was featured in the season's first episode during Amy's visit to the clinic. *In the fourth episode of the fourth season, "Rolling in the Deep" by Adele is played in the beginning during Adrian's walk and at the end of the episode when she is sitting in the empty nursery after punching numerous holes in the wall. *In the thirteen episode of the fourth season "S&M" by Rihanna, "Memories" by David Guetta feat. Kid Cudi and "Til ya make it" by "Jamie Lynn Noon" are played at the end of the episode during the dance party. *At the beginning of first episode of fifth season, when Amy and Ricky went from chapel, is played Bruno Mars' song "Marry You". *In the last episode when Adrian recollects her school years and relationships is played "Try with Me" by Nicole Scherzinger. *In the last episode during Ricky's flashback, the song "Blurry" by Puddle of Mudd is played